The
past couple years have seen a dramatic increase in the visibility of
documentary films, particularly in theaters. There once was a time
when documentaries made just token appearances in art houses and
college campuses before taking their rightful place on video shelves
and on public broadcasting. But today, a documentary can screen in a
mainstream cineplex alongside big budget Hollywood fare and actually
stand a chance of making some money. Movies like Spellbound,
Winged Migration and yes, Fahrenheit
9-11 have demonstrated that audiences will leave their
homes to see non-fiction subject matter on the big screen. Fifteen
years ago, a movie like March of the
Penguins would likely have screened only in natural
history museums. These days it cracks the weekend box office top
ten.

Home video, on the other hand, has always been non-fiction friendly.
Virtually all documentaries play as well if not better at home than
they do in the cinema, especially now that so many are shot on video
instead of film. Unfortunately, documentaries also sometimes attract
sloppy and lazy filmmakers. In films like these, there seems to be
an attitude that finding an interesting subject guarantees an
interesting film. That's just not true. It's relatively simple to
find interesting people or topics to make movies about. It's much
more difficult to frame that subject in a way that makes it
interesting to people besides yourself.

On DVD, non-fiction encompasses much more than just documentary
films. Go to your public library and check out what's shelved in the
non-fiction video section and you'll see what I mean. In addition to
traditional documentaries, there are TV series, do-it-yourself
instructional videos, archival collections, and much more. This
column aims to look past the most famous recent documentaries like
Super-Size Me and into a
handful of discs that show the diversity of non-fiction DVD. Some
are good, some are bad, and yeah, some are downright ugly.

Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without
a Pause
2003 (2005) - Docurama

For the past few years, the Docurama label has been doing an
outstanding job of presenting a wide array of non-fiction films on
disc, from the seminal Bob Dylan doc Don't
Look Back to the brilliant true crime story Brother's
Keeper to IFC productions like Lost
In La Mancha. Unfortunately, Noam
Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause is one of their weaker
efforts. This is an instance where the subject is more interesting
than the film surrounding him.

For
those who don't know the man, Noam Chomsky is one of America's
leading intellectual figures. Almost certainly the world's most
famous professor of linguistics, Chomsky became politically
active in the late 1960's. His views on America's foreign
policies, analysis of mass media and most recently, opinions on
the war on terror have made him a lightning rod for controversy
for decades now. Certainly he's a fascinating man and more than
worthy subject matter for a documentary film. Indeed, several
have already been made, most notably Manufacturing
Consent.

The problem with Rebel Without a
Pause is that it's interesting only as far as what
Chomsky is saying is interesting. In fact, the film plays out
more as a concert film than a documentary. We see pieces from a
number of speaking engagements and Q&A sessions but no
original, individual interviews with Chomsky himself. The
original interviews come from fellow activists and colleagues,
most interestingly from Chomsky's wife Carol. But while we're
told repeatedly that Chomsky is a controversial figure (so
controversial in fact that some interviewees suggest his life
might be threatened), we don't ever really hear from anyone who
disagrees with him.

Chomsky
is talking about hot-button topics such as the war in Iraq but since
the entire film was shot in Canada instead of the U.S., we don't see
a lot of dissent or even questioning, just polite interest from the
Canadian students. As a document of Chomsky's Canadian tour, Rebel
Without a Pause is probably quite accurate. But if you're
not already familiar with Chomsky, this is definitely not the place
to start.

The presentation of the film on disc is about as good as can be
expected. It was shot on video and looks OK, although some of the
sound isn't very good. It's particularly difficult to make out some
of the questions from various audience members. The main extra is
almost forty minutes of additional Chomsky footage taken from a
press conference. It's certainly as interesting as anything Chomsky
has to say in the film itself. Otherwise, there are a couple of
filmmaker bios, a statement from director Will Pascoe, and
Docurama's catalog, complete with a few trailers for other releases.

As a documentary, Rebel Without a Pause
is far too scattershot and unquestioning to be a success. If you're
a big Noam Chomsky fan, you'll likely forgive the film's
shortcomings and simply enjoy hearing the man speak on a variety of
topics. If you disagree with him, you'll be annoyed that no one is
representing your side. And if you've never heard of him before in
your life, the movie's pace and lack of clear focus will probably
make you tune out long before the credits roll.

Other Cinema DVD (or OCD) is a relatively new independent label that
I would like to officially nominate as one to watch. Unlike
Docurama, OCD isn't a non-fiction-only label. But so far, some of
their most interesting releases have fallen into that category,
including these two new discs.

The
70s Dimension isn't a documentary. In fact, it's a DVD
that really shouldn't exist at all. It's a compilation of
commercials and public service announcements from the decade that
taste forgot rescued from a Portland, OR TV station dumpster. And if
you, like me, were alive and watching television during the 1970s,
you won't find a more mind-bending time machine of a DVD than this
one. Some old favorites are here, like Madge and her Palmolive dish
washing liquid ("You're soaking in it!"), the Marlboro
man, and the pollution-hating Indian who sheds a single tear, but
most are more obscure. I was fond of the military recruitment ads,
particularly those that reached out to women. The spots are divided
into eight well-chosen categories: Appearance, Appliance, Drink,
Food, Military, Potpourri, PSA and Transportation. Each of them will
bring you straight back to the 70s... the hair, the clothes, the
technology, even the decidedly low-tech presentation. The spots
collected here don't look or sound spectacular. They won't show off
your home theatre, unless you're still watching a 32-inch Magnavox
in a beautiful faux cedar housing. They look and sound better than
you might expect 16MM films fished out of a dumpster to, but that's
about all.

The spots are just one half of The 70s
Dimension, collected under the umbrella title What
the 70s Really Looked Like. The rest of the dimension is
70s Remix, six short films
created out of vintage 70s ephemera, reinterpreted through editing,
manipulation and sound design. This is a mixed bag to be sure but
the best of the short films are genuinely excellent. Tony Gault's
Not Too Much Remember is
fascinating (though if you want to pick nits, its footage isn't just
from the 70s) but my favorite was We Edit
Life by Vicki Bennett, a terrific mixing of image and
music.

Russ Forster's So Wrong They're Right
is a more traditional documentary and one of the best non-fiction
films I've seen in a long time. Forster, publisher of the now
defunct fanzine 8-Track Mind,
travels America tracking down fellow enthusiasts of 8-Track tapes,
those long-gone cartridges that dominated stereos throughout the
70s. Before you dismiss these people as kooky hipster eccentrics,
let me say that while we're on the verge of yet another video format
change into high-definition DVD, now is the perfect time for every
single DVD fan to watch So Wrong They're
Right. The men and women featured here understand
something that a lot of video fans don't seem to get. It isn't the
technology, it's the music that's important. It isn't the format,
it's what's recorded on it. A lot of collectors just accumulate
objects and display them for their own sake. Not these folks. To
them, an 8-Track is worthless if it isn't being played. They're
willing to take a chance on music they've never heard of because
they can buy these tapes for a quarter at thrift stores and rummage
sales. If their copy of KISS Alive II
still plays fine on 8-Track, they see no point in rebuying it on CD.
It's an attitude we could use more of. Perhaps if more people got
fed up with buying and rebuying the same things over and over, it
would send a message to the record companies and movie studios. Just
a thought.

So Wrong They're Right is a
funny, warm and nostalgic journey. Even if they're only interviewed
for a few minutes, I enjoyed spending time with each and every
person in this film. They're smart, independent, and unusual people
and I could easily relate to their 8-Track passion. (For the record,
no, I don't have any 8-Tracks any more, although this film certainly
made me wish I'd held on to my collection. Perhaps my old cartridges
of Glass Houses and the Superman
soundtrack are still buried somewhere among my dad's tapes. Hmm...)

So Wrong They're Right was
also shot on 16MM and, like The 70s
Dimension, isn't a technical marvel. The extras on this
disc, on the other hand, are rather enjoyable. Director Russ Forster
contributes an informative and amusing commentary and narrates a
behind-the-scenes and an 8-Track history slide show. 8-Track
Mind #100 features episodes from the video version of
Forster's magazine, including a tribute to Abigail Lavine, a
contributor to the magazine and film who tragically died not long
after the film's completion. Another interview subject from the
film, Texas entrepreneur Mr. Bucks, contributes a few celebrity
interviews with the likes of Tiny Tim and David Byrne. Finally, as
with The 70s Dimension, the
disc includes previews for other releases from OCD.

Other Cinema DVD is off to a great start, releasing little-known
quality titles totally unlike anything anybody else is doing. The
70s Dimension is a wild trip back in time. The only thing
that could make that disc more fun is if you have the equipment to
re-edit the commercials back into episodes of Good
Times or The Mary Tyler Moore
Show. So Wrong They're Right,
on the other hand, is just about as good-hearted and affectionate a
documentary as you'll see. I hope future releases from OCD continue
to surprise and surpass these two fine discs.

I don't know if you've noticed but there are a lot of documentaries
focused on the porn world. I have my theories as to why this might
be. If you make a pornumentary, you can hang out in the porn world,
check out porn sets, write off a trip to the Adult Video Awards in
Vegas on your taxes (it seems to be mandatory for all of these
movies to go to Vegas), but still maintain the respectability of
being a documentary filmmaker instead of a smut peddler. In other
words, these movies are made by guys who are obsessed with porn but
don't have the stones to make porn themselves.

Some
of these pornumentaries are kind of entertaining, such as Porn
Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy, but most are not. The
best is the recent Inside Deep Throat,
which wisely focuses on what is arguably the single most important
porn movie of all time and examines it from every angle. But most of
them are along the lines of Desperately
Seeking Seka, a great title without a movie to back it
up. The movie is ostensibly told from the point of view of Swedish
journalist Stefan Nylen. Stefan comes to America hoping to find out
whatever happened to Seka, the famous single-named porn star of the
late 70s and early 80s. Not a bad idea for a movie. Seka was
certainly one of the most popular and beautiful porn stars of her
day. Only trouble is that it turns out that Seka ain't all that hard
to track down (Nylen makes a single phone call and finds her living
in Chicago). And the reasons she left the industry ain't all that
interesting (she was getting older and didn't want to do it
anymore).

Instead of allowing these discoveries to change the direction of the
film, directors Magnus Paulsson and Christian Hallman pad things out
with lengthy, dull excerpts from Seka's movies and interviews with
porn figures new and old, including Al Goldstein (who must be
contractually obligated to appear in every single movie about
pornography ever made) and producer/director Jane Hamilton (who used
to perform under the name Veronica Hart). Hamilton is the most
interesting person in the film and a better movie probably could be
made about her. As it is, Desperately
Seeking Seka is anticlimactic, repetitive and dull.

The DVD is equally subpar. The sound is iffy and the video quality
is pretty poor, especially the clips from the movies which were
clearly taken straight from worn VHS tapes. The bonus features
include a bunch of deleted scenes and interviews (the movie itself
is less than an hour), many of which are just more clips from Seka's
movies! There are some production notes, bios, publicity material
and outtakes, plus a painfully bad commentary by the filmmakers. The
most useful extra on here is a fairly complete looking filmography
for Seka herself, which if nothing else will steer you toward some
quality vintage smut.

Speaking of vintage smut, I don't think I've ever seen a stranger
DVD than the inaugural edition of the Midnight
Blue Collection, The Deep Throat Special Edition. For
over twenty years, Midnight Blue
raised temperatures across New York City late at night. Hosted by
the ubiquitous Al Goldstein, Midnight
Blue provided a serious (well, relatively serious) look
at pornography and sexual politics at the height of the adult film
industry's popularity. Cashing in on the resurgence in popularity of
all things Deep Throat, this
DVD collects an assortment of interviews from Midnight
Blue over the years revolving around the legendary porn
movie. Yes, the TV on DVD phenomenon is now so pervasive that we're
seeing public access shows released on disc.

Strictly speaking, the content of the disc isn't all that
interesting. Interviews with the likes of director Gerard Damiano
and star Harry Reems are interesting within the context of their
time but if you're genuinely interested in learning about the making
of the movie, you're much better off waiting to see Inside
Deep Throat. But it's the way this disc is put together
that makes it so bizarre. Occasional bits of trivia are put in Pop-Up
Video style, giving context to the proceedings and
filling us in on tidbits like the fact that Carol Connors, the nurse
in Deep Throat, is Thora
Birch's mother. Weirdest of all, the individual episodes are bridged
by the actual commercials aired at the time. So you get to see ads
for swingers clubs like Plato's Retreat, escort services, and sex
toys like the Orgasmatron.

A disclaimer at the beginning of the program explains that every
effort was made to restore the original elements but, as they say,
you can't shine shit. True to their word, the program looks and
sounds pretty awful. Watchable but with occasional dropouts and
weird video rolls. It's bad but in a way, it just makes the whole
thing feel that much sleazier. The only extras are two horrible
audio interviews with Damiano and Reems recorded so poorly that I
couldn't make out a word that was said.

For anybody who thinks that all porn is the same, that's just not
true. There's good porn and bad porn and likewise there are good
pornumentaries and bad ones. Desperately
Seeking Seka is pretty lousy, making a subject which
should at the very least be titillating seem extremely dull. The
Deep Throat Special Edition isn't much more informative
but at least it's got a real air of genuine porno sleaze to it. If
it were a bonus disc to a full-fledged double-disc special edition
of the movie Deep Throat, it
would be pretty damn cool. But on its own, it'll only appeal to the
most devoted of vintage porn collectors.

Some subjects are so big, they're better suited to being examined
on television than on film. Entire cable networks are dedicated to
shows like these, multi-part dissections of wars, empires, ancient
civilizations and historical figures. World
War I in Color (or Colour as this British-produced series
is spelled) is typical of programs like these. Serious, gripping
non-fiction stories of the type favored by Tony Soprano. The twist
with this program is that thanks to the miracle of computer
technology, original footage from the Great War has been colorized,
giving us the opportunity to see the war as never before.

Now
I know what you're thinking. Probably the same thing I was. How
can there possibly be any use for colorization that doesn't
completely bastardize the original footage? Well for a start,
none of this material was shot for an artistic purpose, so
unlike colorizing say, Casablanca,
the technicians' only responsibility is to keep things as
accurate and detailed as possible. And if the result isn't
exactly the way it was originally seen (as narrator Kenneth
Branagh intones at the beginning of each episode), at its best
it does provide a remarkable level of immediacy to the footage.
Some of the most impressive footage is of naval battles. With
basically just sea, sky and battleship grey to worry about, this
footage looks pretty close to reality. The colorization doesn't
always work, though. Shots of troops marching often look like an
attack of the clones instead of a unit of individuals. Even so,
even the least effective coloring here is a far sight better
than those early attempts at colorizing the Three Stooges.

But no documentary stands or falls solely on the basis of its
technical merits. In addition to the enhanced footage and
Branagh's narration, World War I in
Color is bolstered by voice-over performances of
soldiers' memoirs and letters plus contemporary interviews with
historians and surviving veterans.

Thankfully,
optional subtitles are provided and you'll likely switch them on to
understand some of the gentlemen interviewed (none too surprising
considering they're all within shouting distance of the century
mark). The worst thing to be said about the voice-over work is that
they're all performed in broad accents, no doubt to erase any doubt
as to which army they were part of. The unfortunate side effect of
this choice is that every French soldier sounds like Inspector
Clouseau, every Russian soldier like Boris Badenov, and every German
like Rainier Wolfcastle.

In the end, however, World War I in Color
is no better or worse than any other documentary of its type. The
war is presented clearly in individual episodes focusing on
different stages of the conflict, from the trench war to the rise of
the flying aces and U-boats. If you're a WWI buff, nothing in this
series will be news to you but you'll appreciate some of the rare
footage and the eyewitness accounts from the veterans. Otherwise,
this is a solid introduction to the topic but not so dynamic that it
will necessarily hook you for life.

Extras on the set are limited to an uninteresting "making of"
(really just a couple of sit-down interviews with the producers and
nothing about the more technical aspects) and a pretty good bonus
episode called Tactics & Strategy.
This program uses CGI to digitally recreate certain key battles,
going more in-depth into these individual moments than the broader
scope of the series itself allows. The computer technology is
already outdated but it's still a fairly interesting fifty minutes,
giving a great deal of insight into how warfare has changed in the
last century. Disc one also includes thumbnail biographies of many
of the key players of World War I and a helpful timeline of events
and some startling facts and figures about individual casualties.

World War I in Color doesn't
exactly break new ground in telling the story of the war to end all
wars but it does present familiar information (or at least, it
should be familiar) in a clear and concise manner. As computer
technology continues to improve, such attempts to revitalize the
past may well become more common. Certainly this kind of project is
the only use colorization should be put to. The original footage
captured the war using the best technology available at the time. To
use modern technology in an attempt to make this footage as lifelike
as possible seems a noble effort. World
War I in Color is a good first step.

World War
I in Color
Film Rating: B-
Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras): B-/B/B-